Relic: Pendergast, Book 1

Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human. But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders. Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who - or what - is doing the killing.

Thunderhead

Nora Kelly, a young archaeologist in Santa Fe, receives a letter written 16 years ago, yet mysteriously mailed only recently. In it her father, long believed dead, hints at a fantastic discovery that will make him famous and rich - the lost city of an ancient civilization that suddenly vanished a thousand years ago. Now Nora is leading an expedition into a harsh, remote corner of Utah's canyon country, but what she unearths will be the newest of horrors.

The Ice Limit

The largest known meteorite has been discovered, entombed in the earth for millions of years on a frigid, desolate island off the southern tip of Chile. At four thousand tons, this treasure seems impossible to move. New York billionaire Palmer Lloyd is determined to have this incredible find for his new museum. Stocking a cargo ship with the finest scientists and engineers, he builds a flawless expedition. But from the first approach to the meteorite, people begin to die....

Gideon's Sword

At 12, Gideon Crew witnessed his father, a world-class mathematician, accused of treason and gunned down. At 24, summoned to his dying mother's bedside, Gideon learned the truth: His father was framed and deliberately slaughtered. With her last breath, she begged her son to avenge him. Now, with a new purpose in his life, Gideon crafts a one-time mission of vengeance, aimed at the perpetrator of his father's destruction. His plan is meticulous, spectacular, and successful.But from the shadows, someone is watching. A very powerful someone, who is impressed by Gideon's special skills.

Riptide

A centuries-old, cursed pirate's treasure, valued at over $2 billion, lies deep within the treacherous waters off the coast of Maine. Men who have attempted to unearth the fortune have suffered gruesome deaths. Will a high-tech expedition meet the same fate?

Mount Dragon

Guy Carson is a brilliant scientist at GeneDyne, one of the world's foremost biochemical companies. When he is transferred to Mount Dragon, GeneDyne's high-security genetic engineering lab, his good fortune seems too good to be true.

Carson soon finds that it is. He learns that GeneDyne geneticists are tinkering with a common virus with an eye on the enormous profit to be had from a cure for the flu. Their cure involves permanently altering DNA in humans. What's more, Mount Dragon harbors another secret that puts the world at horrifying risk.

Deep Storm

Former naval doctor Peter Crane is summoned to a remote oil platform in the North Atlantic to help diagnose a bizarre medical condition. But when he arrives, Crane learns that the real trouble lies far below on "Deep Storm", a stunningly advanced science-research facility built two miles beneath the surface on the ocean floor. The top-secret structure has been designed for one purpose: to excavate a recently discovered undersea site that may hold the answers to an ancient mystery.

Utopia

Rising out of the Nevada canyons, Utopia is a theme park so technologically advanced as to be awe-inspiring. But serious mishaps are starting to cause concern, and things turn from bad to worse when a group of mercenaries infiltrates the park's computerized infrastructure, holding the entire park hostage. The engineer who designed the park now must find a way to save it.

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story

Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die.

Earthcore

EarthCore is the company with the technology, the resources, and the guts to go after the mother lode. Young executive Connell Kirkland is the company's driving force, pushing himself and those around him to uncover the massive treasure. But at three miles below the surface, where the rocks are so hot they burn bare skin, something has been waiting for centuries. Waiting...and guarding. Kirkland and EarthCore are about to find out first-hand why this treasure has never been unearthed.

Sandstorm: A Sigma Force Novel, Book 1

An inexplicable explosion rocks the antiquities collection of a London museum and the race begins to determine how it happened, why it happened, and what it means. Lady Kara Kensington's family paid a high price in money and blood to found the gallery that now lies in ruins. Her search for answers leads Kara and her friend Safia al-Maaz, the gallery's curator, into a world they never dreamed existed.

The Templar Legacy

The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it was, and its true nature could change the modern world.

Spartan Gold

Treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo are exploring the Great Pocomoke Swamp in Delaware when they are shocked to discover a World War II German U-boat. Inside, they find a bottle taken from Napoleon's "lost cellar." Fascinated, the Fargos set out to find the rest of the collection. But another connoisseur of sorts has been looking for the bottle they've just found.

Ice Station Wolfenstein: Order of the Black Sun, Book 1

Sam Cleave, reporter for a small newspaper, has seen better days. After his partner was killed during an undercover investigation, he lost his passion for work and living. But when a resident of a nearby assisted living home is tortured and murdered in a barbaric manner, he starts investigating. He is especially intrigued when a mysterious box is given to him that belonged to the dead man, but he needs help to interpret what it means.

Ramsey's Gold

When a forgotten journal materializes decades after Drake Ramsey's father vanished in the Amazon jungle, Drake decides to follow in his footsteps and search for the legendary treasure of the Inca empire hidden in the lost Inca city of Paititi.

Book of Shadows

Homicide detective Adam Garrett is already a rising star in the Boston police department when he and his cynical partner, Carl Landauer, catch a horrifying case that could make their careers: the ritualistic murder of a wealthy college girl that appears to have satanic elements.

Memory Man

Amos Decker's life changed forever - twice. The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field for good and left him with an improbable side effect - he can never forget anything.

Publisher's Summary

William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archeologist, are brutally attacked in their apartment on the Upper West side of Manhattan. Eyewitnesses claim and the security camera confirms the killer seen leaving the building was their strange, sinister neighbor - a man who, by all reports, was already dead.

Captain Hayward leads the official homocide investigation, while Pendergast, D'Agosta, and Nora undertake a private quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them into a part of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive and deadly hotbed of Obeah, the West Indian Zombii cult of sorcery and magic. And it is here they find their true peril is just beginning.

Just awful. No shortage of adjectives and adverbs, but big shortage of compelling drama and action. It was trite and boring. I wish I had counted the number of times the words "shambling" and "pate" were repeated. I want my time back.

I pick up anything from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I'm a fan, have read all their books, and am waiting for their next novel.

That said, I couldn't help but feel Messrs. Preston and Child were struggling to pull all the loose strings together on this one toward the end. I guess it still worked. But, I couldn't say it's "up there" with their other works.

Would I still have purchased it, knowing what I know? Yeah. But, then again, I'm a fan.

Could it be faster paced? Possibly. Could it be less gorey? Probably. Could it be more "up beat"? Perhaps. But then, it wouldn't be Pendergast. Add Rene Auberjonois and his New Orleans Southern aristocrat accent and prepare yourself for listening at it's best.

Haven't met Special Agent Pendergast? This is as good a place to start as any. You'll be glad you did.

I am a huge fan of the Pendergast series. However, this novel and the one prior to it have not lived up to the quality of the other books in this series. I would give this one higher marks than "The Wheel of Darkness", but not much higher. Zombies? Really? It seems that Preston and Child have run out of ideas. The book did get somewhat better in the latter third of the novel, but not very good overall. The narration, however, was top-notch.

Having once been a fan of the collaborations of Preston and Child, I have been increasingly disappointed by their latest efforts. This book followed a downward trend, that I hoped would have reversed direction. The story is rather predictable and never reaches the potential created by the opening scenes. The main characters, familiar from multiple adventures, have lost their shine and the storyline its ability to grab me by the collar and by doing so its ability to demand my attention. I am glad I was able to multitask while listening to the story rather than wasting my time reading it, which probably saves the book from an even lower rating. Most Preston and Child veterans will, I'm afraid, be disappointed. Those unfamiliar with their works should move down the shelf to their earlier, much more entertaining, works.

In this latest incarnation of the Pendergast saga, Preston and Child bring together the usual cast of characters wrapped up in a new adventure about Obeah, the West Indian Zombi cult and all things evil. The story starts off with a bang, but soon slows to an imperceptible crawl as the plot is sidetracked by blood, gore, animal sacrifice, and zombie silliness.

How many times can one read about suppurating sores, gobs of dribbling saliva, blood-imbued body parts, and lurching "man-thing" creatures. Well, apparently any number of times, because the same subplots are played out over and over again throughout the story. It becomes old real fast.

Even Pendergast is portrayed a little flat in this story. Where his once quirky esoteric knowledge of the unusual, clever put-downs, and spiffy rejoinders were charming, they are stale and annoying here. Even Lt. Vincent D'Agosta seems to have dropped a few IQ points and is rendered as an angry buffoon.

After listening to a few chapters in this book, you'll soon recognize "Still Life with Crows." It's the same story and the same monster, but not nearly as interesting the second time around.

Utimately, Pendergast fans will like this book, but for me, this book feels like a bridge to the next Pendergast novel -- the one where Constance Greene has her baby in Tibet, Aloysius resumes his relationship with Dr. Viola Maskelene, and Diogenes returns from the dead to match wits with his frater. It's unfortunate that we will all have to wait several years for the book that should have been.